Sultan of Acheh, reigned 1735-1760, eldest son and successor of Alaedin Ahmat Shah. In the epic Hikayat Pochut Muhamat he appears as Poteu Ue’ (“our lord the coconut,” his pre-accession name) — an indolent ruler content to watch the Arab pretender Poteu Jeumaloy govern unopposed. It was his youngest brother, Pochut Muhamat, who forced the issue, defeated Jeumaloy, and made Poteu Ue’ master of all Acheh despite himself, after which he rewarded Pochut Muhamat with half the port dues and arranged his marriage.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Alaedin Juhan Shah
Alaedin Juhan Shah was a Sultan of Acheh who reigned from 1756 to 1760. He is chiefly remembered in Achehnese tradition through the celebrated heroic poem the Hikayat Pocut Muhamat, which depicts with no small skill the conflict waged by his brother Pocut Muhamat on his behalf against the latter’s Arab rival Jamalul-alam.
The conflict belongs to the troubled period following the collapse of the old line of sultans and the establishment of the “latest dynasty” — the Arab-descended line to which Jamalul-alam belonged. The Hikayat Pocut Muhamat narrates how Pocut Muhamat, the brother of Alaedin Juhan Shah, took up arms on his brother’s behalf against the Arab pretender, and represents the rivalry between the native princely line and the new Arab dynasty in the form of a heroic romance. Although the poem contains sundry embroideries characteristic of the Achehnese hikayat form, it preserves a genuine memory of the dynastic struggles which followed the weakening of the Sultanate in the middle of the 18th century.
The reign of Alaedin Juhan Shah is also connected, in the chronology of the sarakatas (royal edicts) preserved by Snouck Hurgronje, with the revival of the sarakata of Jamalul-alam dated 1689. This edict was revived by Alaedin Juhan, “the second prince of the latest dynasty,” in 1752 — that is to say, four years before the beginning of Alaedin Juhan Shah’s own reign. The revival of an earlier sarakata under the authority of a new sultan was a common Achehnese practice, by which the formal legislation of a predecessor was confirmed and re-issued in the name of the reigning prince; the sarakata of Jamalul-alam, as revived by Alaedin Juhan, is one of the dated edicts preserved in Snouck Hurgronje’s collection.
Alaedin Juhan Shah’s reign thus belongs to the period of the “latest dynasty” — the Arab-descended line which succeeded the old sultans of Acheh in the middle of the 18th century. The dynastic struggle between his party and that of Jamalul-alam, immortalised in the Hikayat Pocut Muhamat, is one of the latest events of Achehnese history to be preserved in epic form; after this, the decline of the Sultanate made heroic poetry impossible.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Alaedin Juhan
Alaedin Juhan, also written Alaeddin Juhan or Alauddin Juhan, and bearing the formal regnal name Sultan Juhan Shah, was the second prince of the latest — i.e. the present, traditionally Bugis-origin — dynasty of Acheh. He reigned from 1735 to 1760, succeeding his father Sultan Ahmat Shah (1723/26–1735), the founder of the dynasty. He is chiefly remembered in the documentary record for having revived, in 1752, a sarakata (royal edict) first issued by Jamalul-Alam (in Achehnese Jemnaloj) in 1689.
The revived edict of Jamalul-Alam
Snouck Hurgronje, during his residence in Acheh, obtained copies of a number of sarakata not included in those published by Van Langen. Among them, he lists “one of Jamalul-Alam (in Achehnese Jemnaloj) dated 1689, revived by Alaedin Juhan, the second prince of the latest dynasty, in 1752”. This document is mentioned in close association with edicts of Meukuta Alam (1607, revived by Sapiatodin in 1645), further edicts of Meukuta Alam dated 1635 and 1640, and the edict of Alaedin Mahmut dated 1766.
The act of revival — re-issuing an earlier sultan’s edict under one’s own authority — was a recognised mode by which later Achehnese rulers sought to give fresh force to regulations dealing with court ceremonial, the solemnities of festivals, trade and port regulations, the collection and distribution of taxes, and customs-tariffs. Such documents were, however, generally more influential in form than in fact; Snouck Hurgronje observes of the rules they contained that they exercised, “during the reign of their promulgator at least, some degree of authority over life and trade in the seaport town”, but that to assert more “is to go outside the bounds of probability and to come into conflict with unimpeachable data”.
The Bugis dynasty and the ninefold seal
Alaedin Juhan was the second prince of a line that has ruled Acheh, with some interruptions, since 1723 and is, according to tradition, of Bugis origin. He succeeded his father Amat Shah Juhan (Sultan Ahmat Shah) on the throne and on the chab sikureu’eng — the ninefold seal used on the most solemn royal documents. On the ninefold seal of the pretender Sultan Muhamat Dawot, drawn up in 1879, he is inscribed as “Sultan Juhan Shah 1735–60”, immediately following his father.
Place in the Achehnese tradition
Of the seven sultans named on the ninefold seal of Muhamat Dawot, the first four — Sayyidi al-Mukamnal (Alauddin al-Qahar), Meukuta Alam (Iskandar Muda), Tajul-alam (Sapiatodin), and Sultan Ahmat Shah — recur on most Achehnese ninefold seals and are those to whom former prosperity and the adat-institutions of Acheh are generally ascribed. The remaining names, including that of Alaedin Juhan, “vary according to the taste of each of the sultans, who decide for themselves the contents of their seals”. His inclusion by the pretender sultans reflects the importance his dynasty attached to legitimising itself through its founders.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Sultan Juhan Shah
Sultan Juhan Shah (styled in full Alaedin Juhan Shah) was Sultan of Acheh from 1735 to 1760. He is named in The Achehnese Vol. I as one of the eight sultans whose names appear in the small surrounding circles of the ninefold seal (chab sikureung) of the Achehnese sultanate, alongside the central name of the reigning sultan.
The ninefold seal was used on the most weighty documents of the sultanate, and the names inscribed on it had a fixed ceremonial character. The first four of these names recur on most of the ninefold seals: they are the names of the rulers to whom the former prosperity of Acheh and her adat-institutions were generally ascribed — Sultan Sayyidi al-Mukamnal (Alaedin al-Qahhar), Sultan Meukuta Alam (Iskandar Muda), Sultan Tajul-alam (the first sultana, Sapiatodin), and Sultan Ahmat Shah, the first prince of the present dynasty (1723–1735). The remaining four names, including that of Sultan Juhan Shah, varied according to the taste of each sultan, who decided for himself the contents of his own seal.
Sultan Juhan Shah succeeded Sultan Ahmat Shah (the first prince of the present Bugis-related dynasty) in 1735. His reign of some twenty-five years falls in the middle period of the sultanate, between the recovery of the dynasty under Ahmat Shah and the long decline that set in during the later eighteenth century. He was succeeded, after his death in 1760, by a series of princes whose reigns — those of Sultan Mahmut Shah (1781–1795) and Sultan Jauhar Alam Shah (1802–1824) — are also recorded on the ninefold seal of Sultan Muhamat Dawot. The tradition by which his name was retained on the ninefold seal of Sultan Muhamat Dawot Shah in 1889 shows the lasting place assigned to him in the dynastic memory of the sultanate.
Snouck Hurgronje is careful to point out that the chronological details of the reigns of the Achehnese kings are very variously given in the different native authorities, and that the dates assigned to the sultans of this period are open to doubt. For the purposes of the ninefold seal, however, the exact chronology matters less than the ceremonial inclusion of the name in the roll of royal ancestors by whose afwah (mediation) the reigning sultan’s acts were held to be blessed. Sultan Juhan Shah is thus one of the figures whose presence on the ninefold seal preserves, in compressed form, the Achehnese sense of a continuous dynastic tradition reaching from the great conquerors of the sixteenth century down to the last sultan elected under the old constitution.
See Also
- Acheh
- Alaedin Ahmat Shah
- Alaedin Juhan
- Alaedin Juhan Shah
- Alaedin Mahmut
- Amat Shah Juhan
- Badrudin Asem
- Bugis-origin dynasty
- Chab Sikureung
- Hikayat Pochut Muhamat
- Jamalul-alam
- Pochut Muhamat
- Pocut Muhamat
- Poteu Jeumaloy
- Sarakata (royal edicts of Acheh)
- Shamsul-alam
- Sultan Ahmat Shah
- Sultan Jauhar Alam Shah
- Sultan Juhan Shah
- Sultan Mahmut Shah
- Sultan Muhamat Dawot Shah
- Sultanate of Acheh
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
Sultan of Acheh, reigned 1735-1760, eldest son and successor of Alaedin Ahmat Shah. In the epic Hikayat Pochut Muhamat he appears as Poteu Ue’ (“our lord the coconut,” his pre-accession name) — an indolent ruler content to watch the Arab pretender Poteu Jeumaloy govern unopposed. It was his youngest brother, Pochut Muhamat, who forced the issue, defeated Jeumaloy, and made Poteu Ue’ master of all Acheh despite himself, after which he rewarded Pochut Muhamat with half the port dues and arranged his marriage.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Alaedin Juhan Shah
Alaedin Juhan Shah was a Sultan of Acheh who reigned from 1756 to 1760. He is chiefly remembered in Achehnese tradition through the celebrated heroic poem the Hikayat Pocut Muhamat, which depicts with no small skill the conflict waged by his brother Pocut Muhamat on his behalf against the latter’s Arab rival Jamalul-alam.
The conflict belongs to the troubled period following the collapse of the old line of sultans and the establishment of the “latest dynasty” — the Arab-descended line to which Jamalul-alam belonged. The Hikayat Pocut Muhamat narrates how Pocut Muhamat, the brother of Alaedin Juhan Shah, took up arms on his brother’s behalf against the Arab pretender, and represents the rivalry between the native princely line and the new Arab dynasty in the form of a heroic romance. Although the poem contains sundry embroideries characteristic of the Achehnese hikayat form, it preserves a genuine memory of the dynastic struggles which followed the weakening of the Sultanate in the middle of the 18th century.
The reign of Alaedin Juhan Shah is also connected, in the chronology of the sarakatas (royal edicts) preserved by Snouck Hurgronje, with the revival of the sarakata of Jamalul-alam dated 1689. This edict was revived by Alaedin Juhan, “the second prince of the latest dynasty,” in 1752 — that is to say, four years before the beginning of Alaedin Juhan Shah’s own reign. The revival of an earlier sarakata under the authority of a new sultan was a common Achehnese practice, by which the formal legislation of a predecessor was confirmed and re-issued in the name of the reigning prince; the sarakata of Jamalul-alam, as revived by Alaedin Juhan, is one of the dated edicts preserved in Snouck Hurgronje’s collection.
Alaedin Juhan Shah’s reign thus belongs to the period of the “latest dynasty” — the Arab-descended line which succeeded the old sultans of Acheh in the middle of the 18th century. The dynastic struggle between his party and that of Jamalul-alam, immortalised in the Hikayat Pocut Muhamat, is one of the latest events of Achehnese history to be preserved in epic form; after this, the decline of the Sultanate made heroic poetry impossible.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Alaedin Juhan
Alaedin Juhan, also written Alaeddin Juhan or Alauddin Juhan, and bearing the formal regnal name Sultan Juhan Shah, was the second prince of the latest — i.e. the present, traditionally Bugis-origin — dynasty of Acheh. He reigned from 1735 to 1760, succeeding his father Sultan Ahmat Shah (1723/26–1735), the founder of the dynasty. He is chiefly remembered in the documentary record for having revived, in 1752, a sarakata (royal edict) first issued by Jamalul-Alam (in Achehnese Jemnaloj) in 1689.
The revived edict of Jamalul-Alam
Snouck Hurgronje, during his residence in Acheh, obtained copies of a number of sarakata not included in those published by Van Langen. Among them, he lists “one of Jamalul-Alam (in Achehnese Jemnaloj) dated 1689, revived by Alaedin Juhan, the second prince of the latest dynasty, in 1752”. This document is mentioned in close association with edicts of Meukuta Alam (1607, revived by Sapiatodin in 1645), further edicts of Meukuta Alam dated 1635 and 1640, and the edict of Alaedin Mahmut dated 1766.
The act of revival — re-issuing an earlier sultan’s edict under one’s own authority — was a recognised mode by which later Achehnese rulers sought to give fresh force to regulations dealing with court ceremonial, the solemnities of festivals, trade and port regulations, the collection and distribution of taxes, and customs-tariffs. Such documents were, however, generally more influential in form than in fact; Snouck Hurgronje observes of the rules they contained that they exercised, “during the reign of their promulgator at least, some degree of authority over life and trade in the seaport town”, but that to assert more “is to go outside the bounds of probability and to come into conflict with unimpeachable data”.
The Bugis dynasty and the ninefold seal
Alaedin Juhan was the second prince of a line that has ruled Acheh, with some interruptions, since 1723 and is, according to tradition, of Bugis origin. He succeeded his father Amat Shah Juhan (Sultan Ahmat Shah) on the throne and on the chab sikureu’eng — the ninefold seal used on the most solemn royal documents. On the ninefold seal of the pretender Sultan Muhamat Dawot, drawn up in 1879, he is inscribed as “Sultan Juhan Shah 1735–60”, immediately following his father.
Place in the Achehnese tradition
Of the seven sultans named on the ninefold seal of Muhamat Dawot, the first four — Sayyidi al-Mukamnal (Alauddin al-Qahar), Meukuta Alam (Iskandar Muda), Tajul-alam (Sapiatodin), and Sultan Ahmat Shah — recur on most Achehnese ninefold seals and are those to whom former prosperity and the adat-institutions of Acheh are generally ascribed. The remaining names, including that of Alaedin Juhan, “vary according to the taste of each of the sultans, who decide for themselves the contents of their seals”. His inclusion by the pretender sultans reflects the importance his dynasty attached to legitimising itself through its founders.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Sultan Juhan Shah
Sultan Juhan Shah (styled in full Alaedin Juhan Shah) was Sultan of Acheh from 1735 to 1760. He is named in The Achehnese Vol. I as one of the eight sultans whose names appear in the small surrounding circles of the ninefold seal (chab sikureung) of the Achehnese sultanate, alongside the central name of the reigning sultan.
The ninefold seal was used on the most weighty documents of the sultanate, and the names inscribed on it had a fixed ceremonial character. The first four of these names recur on most of the ninefold seals: they are the names of the rulers to whom the former prosperity of Acheh and her adat-institutions were generally ascribed — Sultan Sayyidi al-Mukamnal (Alaedin al-Qahhar), Sultan Meukuta Alam (Iskandar Muda), Sultan Tajul-alam (the first sultana, Sapiatodin), and Sultan Ahmat Shah, the first prince of the present dynasty (1723–1735). The remaining four names, including that of Sultan Juhan Shah, varied according to the taste of each sultan, who decided for himself the contents of his own seal.
Sultan Juhan Shah succeeded Sultan Ahmat Shah (the first prince of the present Bugis-related dynasty) in 1735. His reign of some twenty-five years falls in the middle period of the sultanate, between the recovery of the dynasty under Ahmat Shah and the long decline that set in during the later eighteenth century. He was succeeded, after his death in 1760, by a series of princes whose reigns — those of Sultan Mahmut Shah (1781–1795) and Sultan Jauhar Alam Shah (1802–1824) — are also recorded on the ninefold seal of Sultan Muhamat Dawot. The tradition by which his name was retained on the ninefold seal of Sultan Muhamat Dawot Shah in 1889 shows the lasting place assigned to him in the dynastic memory of the sultanate.
Snouck Hurgronje is careful to point out that the chronological details of the reigns of the Achehnese kings are very variously given in the different native authorities, and that the dates assigned to the sultans of this period are open to doubt. For the purposes of the ninefold seal, however, the exact chronology matters less than the ceremonial inclusion of the name in the roll of royal ancestors by whose afwah (mediation) the reigning sultan’s acts were held to be blessed. Sultan Juhan Shah is thus one of the figures whose presence on the ninefold seal preserves, in compressed form, the Achehnese sense of a continuous dynastic tradition reaching from the great conquerors of the sixteenth century down to the last sultan elected under the old constitution.
See Also
- Acheh
- Alaedin Ahmat Shah
- Alaedin Juhan
- Alaedin Juhan Shah
- Alaedin Mahmut
- Amat Shah Juhan
- Badrudin Asem
- Bugis-origin dynasty
- Chab Sikureung
- Hikayat Pochut Muhamat
- Jamalul-alam
- Pochut Muhamat
- Pocut Muhamat
- Poteu Jeumaloy
- Sarakata (royal edicts of Acheh)
- Shamsul-alam
- Sultan Ahmat Shah
- Sultan Jauhar Alam Shah
- Sultan Juhan Shah
- Sultan Mahmut Shah
- Sultan Muhamat Dawot Shah
- Sultanate of Acheh
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.